Introspection and contemporary poetry / Alan Williamson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williamson, Alan (Alan Bacher), 1944-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

American poetry.

Self in literature.

Introspection in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 207 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1984.

Summary:

In this bold defense of so-called confessional poetry, Alan Williamson shows us that much of the best writing of the past twenty-five years is about the sense of being or having a self, a knowable personal identity. The difficulties posed by this subject help explain the fertility of contemporary poetic experiment--from the jaggedness of the later work of Robert Lowell to the montage--like methods of John Ashbery, from the visual surrealism of James Wright and W. S. Merwin to the radical plainness of Frank Bidart. Williamson examines these and other poets from a psychological perspective, giving an especially striking reading of Sylvia Plath.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0674462769

OCLC:

9557893